Having predicted the earthquake, John uses symbolic language (verse 20) in the disappearance of the mountains and islands (cf. Rev. 6:14). This is the divine shaking of heaven and earth as promised by God (Heb. 12:25-29) to make way for an unshakable kingdom or new heavens and new earth. The seventh plague includes great hail just as the seventh plague of Egypt. The hail, however, is described as stones about the weight of a talent. This fits the showers brought by the Roman catapults or scorpions that were about a talent that could be thrown 1400 feet (Wars, V, vi, 3). Josephus reports that when the Romans blackened the stones so that the watchers in the towers could not predict their arrival. This plagued the city but they hardened their hearts as Pharoah had done years ago. Just as God had raised Pharoah so that He “might show in thee my power” (Exodus 9:16), He hardened the Jews so that He might reveal the power of His Son and vindicate the righteous souls who await the vengeance and wrath of the Almighty.
Verse 19 describes three things that preceded the day of His wrath. First, the city was divided into three parts. Jesus taught that every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” (Matt. 12:25).
1. Divided City
It is quite revealing, after reading Josephus’ account of the siege of Jerusalem, that the city was divided into three camps. The leaders of the three camps were John of Gishala, Simon Bar Gioras, and Eleazor (Wars, V, iii, 1). Josephus explains that the people suffered more from one another than they ever did the Romans and that the sedition from within the walls destroyed the city, while the Romans destroyed the sedition (Wars, V, vi, 1).
2. Fall of Gentile Cities
A common response to the destruction of Jerusalem is to take the events lightly, thinking that only the people within the city suffered. However, during the revolt, genocidal massacres took place around Gentile cities around Palestine. These were attacks by Jews who slaughtered nearby Gentiles and a Jewish minority in those cities. To review Josephus’ account of this in Wars, II, xviii, 1ff, The people of Caesarea killed 20,000 Jews in an hour’s time. The whole nation of the Jews was so enraged that they formed several fighting parties and laid waste the cities of the Syrians, Philadelphia, Sebonitis, Gerasa, Pella, Scytholpolis, Gadara, Hippos, and Gaulonitis. Some they destroyed and some they set on fire. They, then, hit Kedasa, Ptolemais, Gaba, Caesarea, Samaria, violently attacking them and burning their cities to the ground. They entirely demolished Anthedon, Gaza, and the surrounding villages were plundered along with a great slaughter of the men.
This caused the Gentile nations to respond in retaliation. They were on a mission to utterly destroy the jews. There were suspicions and fears among neighbors and former friends and the cities were filled with dead bodies lying unburied for days. At Scythopolis, more than 13,000 Jews were killed by their townsmen. Askelon killed 2,500, Ptolemais killed 2,000, and many more were killed in Tyre, Hippos, and Gadara. Some were taken in bonds (Wars, II, xviii, 5; Wars II, xviii, 2).
3. Babylon Remembered
The inhumanity of Jew against Jew seen within the walls of Jerusalem, or Jews against Gentiles and vice versa was the condition of this time. Yet, it was God’s plan to unite Jew and Gentile into one body by the cross (Eph. 2:11f). In order to accomplish this task, God broke down the middle wall of partition, the law of commandments, and created a new man, a new priesthood, and a new Jerusalem.